The next 30 days or so will be critical to the future of Airbus and its EADS parent company as top executives struggle to push through the core elements of the European airframer’s Power8 restructuring plan. The toughest challenges hinge on the outcome of high-level political horse-trading between Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s new president, and his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, and also on uncomfortable negotiations that have to be held with trade union officials over the target of shedding some 10,000 jobs at Airbus.
But here at the Paris Air Show this week, much of the dialog will likely focus on Airbus’s relations with its suppliers as it strives toward its goal of reducing the number of firms it deals directly with, from around 3,000 to just 500, and achieving a 10-percent cut in the cost of doing business with these vendors over the next 12 to 18 months. Earlier this month, the company unveiled a transnational corporate structure that involves key suppliers and partners more closely in all aspects of program development and production, as well as a new Charter Commitment agreement to underpin Airbus’s new relationship with these companies.
